PatsDraft.Com

2016
Season Blog.

Pats
Vs. Pitt.

1st
Quarter.

By
TOM

Greetings
Pats Fans,

First
off I just want to thank all the fans of this site. I have been
promoting my books for sale primarily on this site. As a result, I
have sold almost 500 books in the past year. Thank you for your
support and patronage, both are greatly appreciated. I cannot tell
you how happy it made me when I read that report. So thank you Draft
fans and Patriot fans alike, and mostly thank you to all the fans of
my books and website worldwide.

The
Ugliest Dance Ever.

By
TOM

The
Pats D came out and completely out physicalled the Steeler on their first
drive. It turned into an ugly game. "They
were pretty good," Le'Veon Bell said. "They play a lot of
man-to-man. [Collins] is a very good player. It was me and him
head-to-head a lot. They are a good group. They are well coached. They
played well up front. They don't get out of their gaps. A really sound
football team, and that's why they are good." They tried to
establish the run on the first series, and the Pats shut them down.

The
Pats came out on their first series looking to establish the passing game.
They showed right from the start that it was going to be a game of
mistakes, miscues, and misinterpretations of the rules. All the game long
the Pats made small mistakes, at the worst possible time.

Meanwhile,
the Steelers clearly set their defense up to stop the pass, and take the
ball out of Brady's hands. "On
the other side, we didn't come off blocks and make enough tackles in the
run game," coach Tomlin said. "The back fell forward. We realize
by the structure of how we call the game, there was going to be a little
bit of that. But, not enough of guys coming off of blocks and making
tackles. And we gave up two big chunks to Gronk there in the second half
that I thought changed the complexion of that half of play. And really, in
a nutshell, the game among other things, kind of came down to those things
I outlined, things that I outlined to the group prior to us stepping into
the stadium, because you knew the margin for error was going to be
minimal." They knew they had to make every tackle, because
they were backing off in pass defense all game.

The
Pats lined up to throw as they wanted to go full speed and score as any
points as they could, because they knew Pitt couldn't drop 30 on them."And like I just told
you, we acknowledge schematically that we were willing to bleed a little
bit in the run game in an effort to minimize big plays [in the passing
game]" Tomlin said. "In doing so, we would have to come off
blocks and make tackles. Not enough of that for us to be successful."
So the Steelers defensive philosophy of stopping the pass first and
foremost was correct, and mostly successful.

They
could not let Brady go up and down the field and have the slightest chance
to win. "I'm going to be
real specific about why we came up short, because we were real specific in
terms of what needed to happen prior to the game," Tomlin said.
"We realized that our margin for error was minimal. We left some
red-zone possessions out there." The Pats were not ready for
it.

On
the first play of the first series the offense came out firing, and the
Steelers' defense was ready for it, and dropped. Brady hit Hogan
underneath the DBs. There were three DBs behind him, not even pretending
they were trying to stop the run. Hogan caught the ball, turned and ran.
He got hit to one knee by Jarvis Jones. Hogan was clearly knocked down to
one knee with the ball in his hands, which means the play is dead.

Then
Jarvis ripped the ball out. "That's on me," Hogan said. "I
have to understand that there is going to be people coming from behind
looking to strip. I was a little careless with it and I had to move on
after that, but obviously, I'll be working on ball security drills
throughout the week." He never saw Jarvis charging him from behind.

The
refs blew it. "We went out and scrambled on the one," Brady
said. "I got one in the 2nd half. It was decent. I wish our execution
[wasn't so ugly]. When it was good, we made a lot of good plays. I think
there were self-inflicted wounds that really hurt us." That was the
moment I knew this game was going to be a long and ugly affair.

On
the next series Pitt was on a short field, but the Pats D was good. The
Patriots clearly had the opposite strategy of the Steelers, and were
loading to stop the run, and make Landry beat them. Strategically, both
teams did what they wanted to do defensively. They wanted to make the
offense play left handed. The Pats D was very effective taking away the
run, from maybe the best running team in the NFL.

The
Steelers D was far more successful taking Brady out of the game than I
thought they could. "First of all, this is a tough place to
play," BB said. "I have a lot of respect for the Steelers and
Coach Tomlin. That entire football team is tough. They compete very hard.
They have a lot of good players. They're fast. I have to give our players
a lot of credit. They hung in there and battled for four quarters. It
certainly wasn't easy." The made the best passing game in the NFL
play left handed.

Because
of the faux turnover by the refs, the Steelers got the ball at the Pats
45. The Pats D came up and played more aggressively schematically right at
the LOS. They went into a Base 4-3 right off the bat, with my guy Eric
Rowe (I told you he could play) in the box. He got his first start as a
Patriot. They were clearly telling Landry he was not going to run the
ball.

The
Steelers have the best one two punch at RB in the NFL. Plus, the Pats
defense has not always been the best against the run. "Fortunately we
made a few more plays than Pittsburgh did today," BB said. "Our
red area defense kept them off the board when they had a couple situations
where they had good field position." Granted, so far this season they
have been terrific against the run. They have done a remarkable job
stopping the run in the Base Nickel.

It
only took them a couple of quick shots against the Pats aggressive run
defense to get in the Redzone. "Fortunately we made a few more plays
than Pittsburgh did today," BB said. "Our red area defense kept
them off the board when they had a couple situations where they had good
field position." They ran the ball a couple of times in the Redzone
for a couple of yards each.

Then
on 3rd and 6 from the 16, Landry dropped back to throw. Butler lined up in
press on Antonio Brown at the LOS. "He's one of the best, if not the
best [Wideout in the whole world]," Butler said. "He's one or
two. He has no flaws." He ran down the sideline stride for stride
with the best Wideout in the whole world.

Brown
got an outside release and Butler paralleled him with his back to the QB.
"We do some great things," Butler said. "Of course we do
things that we want to do better. We are just going out there and trying
to be the best team that we can be. It's not going to be perfect, we
aren't going to stop everything, and stats only take you so far. It's
about winning the game." Brown curled inside a little as he ran over
the goal line.

Butler
curled inside mirroring Brown, and kept his body turned inside in front of
Brown. "Most all of those plays really revolve around team defense," BB said.
"Malcolm made a good play on the interception and kind of used his
body to box out Brown and make the play. But it's team defense. You've got
to stop the run, you've got to make the quarterback uncomfortable, you've
got to get on the receivers whether it's man or zone. We had our moments.
But yeah, certainly in the end the red area was a huge difference in the
game. In a close game those points amount to a lot. Again, team defense."
Landry threw the ball into the Endzone.

Butler
spotted the ball. He leaped up and took it.
"Obviously Malcom Butler's interception was a big play for us at the
start of the game to keep them from getting ahead," BB said.
"Then we were able to take the lead and play from ahead. That was
good. It was a good team win. It's tough to play here. It's a tough place
to win. We'll take it. The Steelers are a good football team. I have a lot
of respect for that organization and for Mike [Tomlin], the players, and
the job they do. They're tough." Then he did the ugliest dance ever.
Malcolm, buddy, never do that in public again.